i'm impressed with the speed you translate, but then again, you're clearly a more advanced student than i am. that said, i haven't had much (if any) leisure time to translate the article since i bought it last week... plus, i sort of got addicted to that awkwardly touching j-drama 電車男 and ended up watching the whole thing this weekend. so, i've only translated the introductory paragraph, but here's my translation anyway:

Why do human beings to do such things as listen to, sing, perform, and write music? At what point did the ancestors of we homo sapiens come to make music? I've been interested in these problems since I began to study music in my teens. Yet, I'm 53 now, and I still don't understand the answer. I think perhaps I won't understand until I die, but this doesn't change the fact that human beings make music.

Skrhgh,
I actually like your translation a lot better than mine. it sounds like actual english instead of english that has been translated from Japanese. :/

The only reason I can translate quickly is that I read books CONSTANTLY. Conversely, if you had me trying to interpret what someone was saying, it would take me hours and hours to translate a minute of speach. :/ I'm still trying to get through a 30 minute episode of Family Guy that I've been trying to put into Japanese for about 4-5 months now. :/

Daichi, you are quite right. I totally didn't catch that, even on my second read through. :/ I edit now!

I was also kind of curious about the "Do-mi-re re-fa-ra" I know that's not the order that we say it in English, but I was wondering if it's different in Japanese, or if he's just saying it in a different order for some reason or other.

Anyone know?

Last edited by Harisenbon on Mon 09.26.2005 9:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

Harisenbon wrote:I was also kind of curious about the "Do-mi-re re-fa-ra" I know that's not the order that we say it in English, but I was wondering if it's different in Japanese, or if he's just saying it in a different order for some reason or other.

Anyone know?

Getting swamped down here at work, so I'm not for sure if I'll find the time to get that translation done, rather interesting read though. As for the whole "do-mi-re..." thing, I remember seeing something on that one toribia no izumi show about how us English speaking people do things differently than what they, the Japanese do. If I can find something more about it here I'll let ya know. I forget what exactly was different, but there's definatly something there.

Thanks so much for that! That's really interesting. Like most people who have only a slight understanding of music (even after playing violin for 8 years!), I just always assumed do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do was kind of a set phrase. It's interesting to see them re-arranged into a chord like that.
へへへへへへ！ 6 へｓ！

maybe i'm getting ahead of myslef here (believe me, i have to look up half the kanji in order to read it), but he says "do-mi-sol," which is the tonic of a major scale (the most important chord, if you will), and then, "re-fa-la," which is the supertonic chord of a major scale. it happens to be minor, and it's called the supertonic because it comes after the tonic. he's just giving two harmonic chords as an example, but he uses solfege (do, re, mi, etc.) because unless you have some kind of education in the harmonic tradion of western music, those terms are probably lost on you, but almost everyone is familiar with "do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do" (probably thanks to the sound of music), and so it's a convenient way to talk to the musical layman about musical structures.

skrhgh3b wrote:maybe i'm getting ahead of myslef here (believe me, i have to look up half the kanji in order to read it), but he says "do-mi-sol," which is the tonic of a major scale (the most important chord, if you will), and then, "re-fa-la," which is the supertonic chord of a major scale. it happens to be minor, and it's called the supertonic because it comes after the tonic. he's just giving two harmonic chords as an example, but he uses solfege (do, re, mi, etc.) because unless you have some kind of education in the harmonic tradion of western music, those terms are probably lost on you, but almost everyone is familiar with "do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do" (probably thanks to the sound of music), and so it's a convenient way to talk to the musical layman about musical structures.

Wow, you got me there, I don't have a clue about music, but I'm glad you knew exactly what he was talking about with those cordes. I guess it helps to be a bit knowledgeable about music when you're trying to translate articles like this, huh?

Skrhgh,More than that, I know the beer song. (done to the sound of music one)

Dough, the stuff, that buys me beer
Rey, the guy who sells me beer
Me, the guy who drinks my beer
Far, a long way for a beer
So, I'll have another beer
La, I'll have another beer
Tea, no thanks I'll have a beer
and to buy it I'll need DOH!

This has completely left the realm of translation into something completely silly. I apologize.

Melu, I actually hate that 架ける because it has so many meanings. The way it is used here, though, is the same as 渡す, to spread or span. So I would say that it is "the dream that reaches to tomorrow." If I had the context, I could give a more precise translation, though.

Last edited by Harisenbon on Mon 09.26.2005 9:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Harisenbon wrote:Melu, I actually hate that 架ける because it has so many meanings. The way it is used here, though, is the same as 渡す, to spread or span. So I would say that it is "the dream that reaches to tomorrow." If I had the context, I could give a more precise translation, though.